Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-10-14
THE CONSCIENCE PARTY.
Address of DR.. Funk Before
the New York Prohibition
State Convention.

DR.. l. II. Funk, upon assuming the post
of temporary chairman of the recent New
as follows:
Our party has been called in half -deri-
sion Conscience Party. We accept the
epithet. 1t is along this line I would ad-
dress you at this, the opening of what am
sure will prove a historical convention.
There is not anything lasting that is
not right The first thing Of Importance
is to be right. He who is right, as Emer-
son would say, bitches his wagon to a star.
The consultations, all the forces of the
universe, are moving in this direction.
They say, rs you are going our way, find n
pocket and get III, and we will carry you.
The Power behind the universe, omnipo-
tent and omniscient, gives him who is
right helping hand. The ancients had
this for proverb, There is worse thing
than punishment. and that is to deserve it,
and SO there is better thing than success.
and that is to deserve success. The moral
universe, the essential and eternal differ
ence between right and wrong, is a stupen-
dous fact. We cannot get away from it if
we would. Conscience is the one indis-
putable and self-asserting thing in human
nature.
Permit me little preaching. The time
has come for preaching in political assem-
blies. An ex-senator in Texas, during the
late campaign, snid, Let us whip the
preachers back into their pulpits. Preach
ers ore beginning to realize that the world
is their field and they are going to occupy
| the field. They believe that every depart
ment of human affairs should be brought
under the domination of Christian truths.
/ L
! Five men right in Sodom would have out
out of politics in Sodom. Five men right
under the foundation of that city could
| have kept the bottom from falling out of
| that whole region. Conscience has po-
tency, moral and physical, that is scarcely
dreamed of. But its day is dawning.
There is an evolution in the development
of man. The time was when, to find out
the greatest man, the measuring string was
put around the muscles. He who could
throw stone or hurl a spear the farthest,
shoot an arrow the deepest into the heart of
an oak, Outright, outwrestle others, he was
the greatest man. That was the age of
Hercules. Then came the age of brain.
Then, to find the biggest man, the measur-
ing-string was put around the head That
was the age of Shakespeare. But new age
is dawning-the moral age, the age Of con-
science. When that age is fully ripe, that
man will be greatest who measures the
most around the heart. Such n man will
be found to be in an alliance, offensive and
defensive. with the unseen powers, the
real determining forces OF all changes, the
powers that make and unmake history.
ga trite saying it is that tho law of con-
science must govern the individual. 1t is
not SO trite to say that the law of conscience
must govern the combinations formed by
individuals, as corporations and political
parties. Many men who recognize the au-
thority of conscience over them in their in
dividual capacity, feel no computations
for unscrupulous cunning and overreach-
ing, and oppression by corporations or par
ties with which they are identified. What
is everybodys sin is nobodys sin. A cor
pOratlOn has no conscience to appeal to
and no body to kick. Webster boosted of
the advantage he secured by the conceal
ment of a fact in the negotiation of q treaty
with Great Britain. He would have scorn-
ed such an act had it been for his private
York, who will, as likely as not, be bishop
some day, championed the election Of a
Sunday violating saloon keeper against
that pure hearted and manly Prohibition
list, the Rev. Stephen Merit, all because it
was party affair. He would have de-
spised himself to the day of his death, and
so would his church, for that act had ii
been done for some personal advantage;
but it was for the advantage of his party;
and that is horse of a very different color.
The authority of conscience is not to-day
recognized in political parties.
"Right here is the great foundation
stone-the Cornerstone Of the Prohibition
party--it is the Introduction of the moral
element into politics. 1t is the law Of con-
science for the individual extended to par
ty. Is it wrong for the individual to steal?
1t is wrong for him to belong to q party
that would steal. Is it wrong for the indi-
vidual to stuff ballot boxes, to buy and sell
votes? 1t is wrong for him to belong to q
party that would stuff ballot boxes or buy
and sell votes. Is it wrong for him to op-
pose the poor by establishing or defending
huge, oppressive monopolios? 1t is wrong
for him to belong to and support party
that establishes or defends oppressive
monopolies. Is it wrong for the individual
to put the bottle to his neighbours lips? II
is wrong for him to belong to party that
gives countenance to and makes legal the
business of putting bottles to neighbors
lips. That is, the law of conscience ont OF
a party must be the law of conscience in a
party. That is what the Prohibition party
means-conscience applied to politics. a
party with one idea, again echoes the anti
saloon Republicans in their address All
the chestnut bells of the country should
ting-a-ling. Yes, it is; but that one idea is
a foundation idea. and carries ali worth,
ideas with it.
"And why should not conscience be APP
piled to politics? WHAT'S political party
other than combination Of citizens for the
accomplishment of political purposes:
What is there i'll the act of combining tc
release member of the combination from
the law that governs him in his individual
capacity? If a man steals through band
OF robbers, is he less guilty than if he steals
on his own hook? Look at it in another
light. In this country the powers that be
are vested in the citizens.
at is a government by the citizen. AS 9
king in monarchy is responsible to con-
science for his political acts, SO here is the
citizen king. The powers that be are or.
dalned Of God. Here this divine right to
rule is vested in the citizen. II the citizen
rules by divine right, divine law must gov
ern him. There is no escape from the
logic. No man has right to support q
party that is committed to line of policy
tnat would be wrong for him as an indi.
vldual to follow. Is the pool of politics
dirty? Too dirty for a woman to enter; toe